Cookie Tools - Update

As I've been slowly getting back up to speed with my cookie decorating I realized that it might be time for an update on my not-your-everyday cookie decorating tools. For a look back on some more of my unconventional cookie tools check (here).

As a disclaimer I will say the tools below work for me, but they may not work for others, but thought I'd share just in case someone finds something useful.

This is my cheap DIY bottle drying rack made with materials I had on hand. Basically it's a 1" thick sheet of Styrofoam poked with skewers and sandwich picks to suspend everything for better air flow.
 I add cut lengths of soda straws slipped over the picks if my icing tips are too big. (front row r.)

I can also dry my detail paint brushes as well.



Whenever I had to do the dreaded "cookie in a bag with a bow thing", I used to grab my EZ bow maker board.

I kept using the old board for years even though it was really too narrow. It's much better suited for making bows.
Finally I got wise and realized I've got skills and power tools sooooo......

With a chop saw, a drill, leftover dowels from oh so many diaper cakes, and scrap wood from a closet makeover, I already had everything I needed.

I cut the scrap piece down to 12 inches which is long enough for any cookie bag I want to tie, and as an added plus it makes an easy measuring guide to cut my ribbon to length. When I need a lot of ribbon I wrap it multiple times around and cut through both ends.
The 2 dowel pieces were cut to 4 inches and the tops rounded with sand paper. They were glued into 2 holes drilled a little less than 1/8 inch apart.

To use: I bag my cookie, twist the bag and slide it between the two dowels. Now my cookie stays anchored while I tie it.

A, B, and C are palette knifes.

I use A and B when lifting thin fragile fondant shapes after rolling them out and cutting. 

 C- is a lot thinner and more flexible so this is great for removing small icing transfers from the acetate backing I pipe them on.

D- is called a fluid writer or a gold pen when used for ceramic over glazes.

It comes in two sizes, this one being the small size for fine lines.

E- Usually comes with the pen to clean out the tip, and will work in a pinch to unclog piping tips. I've used it for 00 PME tips.

I use this pen for very fine lines, detail work, and even writing when I want to use white as well as gold and silver. Americolor airbrush metallic sheens seem to do well for this. Usually a drop or two right out of the bottle. Most of the other colors (gels and airbrush) are too concentrated to use right out of the bottle, so the color ends up being too dark.
When I want white, I use Americolor regular gel white food color as it is already quite thin.
There is a learning curve to this, but it's worth it for me to be able to write or detail with colors that I can't find as food color pens.

And last but not least - My new cookie bling toy!!!
There are many vacuum pick up tools out there, but this is one I thought would work best for the price and ease of use.
 It's marketed for picking up and placing beads or rhinestones using variable speed suction.

I've discovered it's great to pick up and place sugar pearls or dragees (cookie beads) when making my royal icing jewelry transfers. It made making all the jewelry transfers in my previous post go so much faster.

The suction will vary depending on how you turn the dial. Not shown is a rubber tip that can be added for the larger beads.

NO MORE TWEEZERS!!!

Note: Just make sure the item you're picking up is not too small as you don't want to clog the unit.

♥ Happy Decorating ♥

My Cookie Tools

This post is about some of my cookie making tools. Some of the tools in the photo are fairly normal  cookie decorating tools, and others not your everyday conventional tools for cookies, but ones that I've found quite useful.

A look at some of my cookie tools.

1. Brushes- The large one I use to brush away crumbs before icing. It's also useful in brushing away excess decorating sugar. The middle one I use for brush embroidery, and the tiny one I use for detail painting with food color.

2. Clay sculpting tools. -I use these to scrape off icing details. (see photo below) 

3. Clay tools.- I use these to make shallow holes in dry icing for dragees when they have to be precisely placed. I can also make holes that go all the way through a finished cookie. (see photo below)

4. Tweezers. - For picking up and placing small objects on cookies. The pink one has little indentations to better hold sugar pearls or dragees, but my favorite is the angled one.

5. Acrylic stamping block. -I use this to get even pressure on cookie cutters that keeps them from flexing and distorting the shape of the cookie. It's also very helpful in keeping my hands from getting sore when pushing on the sharp edge.

6. Ceramic clay cutting tools.-I use these when I need to hand cut cookie dough. The top one is for thicker dough. The middle one and the bottom one are actually double sided and very thin allowing me to get more precise cuts.

7. Embossing tools.- I use these to scribe designs on dry icing for detail work, and they come in handy to make an indentation for dragees in fondant.

I kept this cookie, which has all kinds of bad things going for it, to show how I can remove a bad icing detail even when dry. I don't do this often, but when I don't want to waste a cookie, I'll resort to this. Most of the time the icing isn't this dry when I notice it needs to be redone. 

Note: I use royal icing, so I don't know if this technique will work on other icings.

I use this to make holes in finished cookies. I can make a shallow hole and place dragees exactly where I want them, or make a hole completely through the cookie if I forgot to add one before baking.

Note: I use royal icing, so I don't know how this will work with any other icing.

While I was taking photos of the tools I use to make cookies, I took a photo of the tools I use to photograph them when I can't use natural lighting. This photo shows 3 of the 4 utility lamps I clip to the back of my kitchen chairs to create a well lighted area in which to take my pictures. I put a 100 watt full spectrum bulb in each one. These bulbs seem to allow truer colors rather than the yellow cast of regular incandescent bulbs.

I also use them to dry icing so I can move on to the next step of my cookie decorating sooner.

The small camera tripod seen in the photo easily stands on the table and can adjust higher if needed.

I do have a light box, but hate dragging it out to shoot a couple of photos, and I find  this usually works almost as well for me. I admit there can be more shadowing than with a light box, but I'm hoping what I'm photographing is more interesting to look at than the shadows surrounding them. And my lights are being used to dry icing most of the time so they are already to go for photographing. If need be I can hold one of the lights over what I want to photograph and eliminate most of the shadows. 

♥ Happy Decorating ♥

My Cookie Cutter Organization

I know this has been done before, but thought I'd show how I organize my cookie cutters in hopes that it will be helpful to someone out there.
First of all I admit I don't have nearly the amount of cookie cutters that some of my cookie friends have accumulated, but I found a neat and tidy way to store them so that I can view them all easily without even opening the container. I posted it a year ago on my flickr site but thought I'd update it here as well.

Here is how I used to store my cookie cutters. Does this look familiar? I had to rummage through the whole box, or dump them out to even see what was in there.

Here is what I use now. It's a see through scrapbook case made to hold those large 12 x 12 sheets of scrapbooking paper. I admit they aren't cheap, so I buy them at Michaels or Joanne's using a 40% off coupon or wait until they come on sale.

Remember that jumbled box of cutters at the top of the page? Well here is about half of them covering the bottom of the scrapbooking case. On top of these I place a piece of poster board cut to fit inside the case. Why? So I can place another layer of cutters on top.

Here is the second layer of cookie cutters, which are all the remaining ones from the jumbled box above. Normally I use black poster board because the cutters show up better against it, but the store ran out, and these were on sale, so blue it is.

You can see where smaller cutters can be added inside larger ones.

The best part is that I can easily view my cutters through the case, and because I added the poster board to separate the layers, I can flip the case over to view the other side as well. It's so much easier now to find the cutter I need.

This is showing the black poster board in an older photo.

And here is how easily they stack. At the very top are smaller versions of the same case that I use for my mini cutters.

And that is how I store my cookie cutters.

♥ Happy Decorating ♥

Easy Cookie Cutter Plunger for Mini Cutters - Tutorial

While trying to cut out a lot of 3/4" mini heart cookies I was getting frustrated with the dough that would sometimes get stuck in the cutter. Trying to poke it out with a skewer made the cut-out unusable.  I ended up out of desperation making my own quickie plunger using a carrot and a toothpick.  It was easy, quick, and practically free. I didn't have to glue or drill anything, and of course it was food safe.

I didn't have any normal size carrots so I had to make due with these mini carrot things. (I'm guessing you could use a potato as well). First I cut a piece 1/4" thick.  Then I used the same cutter that I was trying to make the cookies with and cut out a carrot heart.  I shaved off some of the edges (using the same cutter) so it would easily pass back and forth through the cutter. Then I carefully pushed the toothpick into it.

I've wrapped the whole thing with a piece of plastic baggie and a twist tie. Not the prettiest looking thing, but it didn't have to be because I was going to throw it away once I was finished. 

Here it is actually pushing out a mini heart.

All done! Only a hundred more to go.

♥Happy Decorating♥